An exploratory stepwise discriminant function analysis of malingered and nondistorted responses to the Neuropsychological Symptom Inventory.

ABSTRACT

Clinicians are often asked to evaluate a patient's potential for malingering during a neuropsychological examination. This problem is particularly crucial when financial gain may hinge on the results of the assessment. Response distortion may occur even when a head injury has been verified by radiological means (e.g., MRI). Research in the identification of malingering has yet to produce results that are effective in the clinical setting. The present study addressed several shortcomings of past research with the use of a self-report symptom inventory. The responses of 242 subjects told to distort symptomology were compared to 128 nonmalingerers. A discriminant function analysis of these data produced a 90% hit rate overall with 2.3% false positives. The results were discussed in terms of clinical utility.